Monday, 25 November 2013

Bangkok is one of the
major travel hubs in Asia, and whenever I travel to the southeast of that
continent, it is more than likely that I will stop over for a day or two there.
This is the first of two stop-overs in Bangkok I made on this latest trip to
Asia. The second was for 3 days, and will be posted later.

Many things can be
said about Bangkok, and few will leave it feeling indifferent. I can think of
few places further removed from my everyday life at home in north London. I
love Bangkok for her frenetic pace and brash nature, the unrelenting heat and humidity,
her crazy characters, but above all Bangkok is the home of the best (and most
affordable) Thai food in the country.

Bangkok skyline from my room at The Metropolitan Bangkok

And so, having had a
relaxing couple of weeks in Laos and Cambodia, I was looking forward to my
16-hour stopover in the hustle and bustle of Bangkok en route to Phuket.

Dinner at Nahm was for
me a no-brainer, so to get the most out of my 16 hours I decided to stay at TheMetropolitan Bangkok Hotel (where the restaurant is based), have a spa treatment at
COMO Shambhala followed by cocktails at the Met Bar, hit the bars and shopping
district of Silom, and then collapse into bed before my flight to Phuket the
next morning.

I am a great fan of
COMO hotels, having stayed at Uma by COMO hotel in Ubud, Bali reviewed here.
The Metropolitan Bangkok, created by Singapore interiors architect Kathryn Kng,
has 171 rooms and suites.

The design in the public areas of the hotel, as in
our room, was of clean open spaces filled with plenty of natural light, and a
tasteful blend of Asian antiques with furniture by contemporary designers.

Our room followed this
theme – with dark wood flooring and whites, it was simple but well furnished,
clean, airy and comfortable. The bathroom was in limestone, and was elegant and
spacious. The room had great views of the city, and given the location and my
plans for the evening, I could not think of better place to rest my head for
the night.

The hotel has a
well-equipped gym and a 20 metre outdoor swimming pool that looked very
tempting (the pool, not the gym mind you), but with so little time and
anticipating a week in Phuket, I had to give it a miss.

Breakfast was taken at
the Glow restaurant, and was one of the best I had in Thailand. The cooking was
light, healthy and fresh, and follows the healthy eating concept of other Glow
restaurants in its sister hotels I tried in Ubud. The buffet was varied and
generous, with a good selection of juices and yoghurts, fresh cut fruit and
granola, pastries, cold meats and cheeses.

I particularly enjoyed
their ricotta and avocado salad, and the smoked salmon, courgette and dill
salad, both fresh and delicious. Most importantly, the coffee was good and
strong.

I also got to enjoy
one of their cooked dishes – stir-fried rice with prawns and an egg sunny side
up, with chilli and lime, which was really delicious and kept me going until
dinner time.

The hotel is well
located on the South Sathorn Road in the business district of the city, a
pleasant 10 minute walk from Rama IV Road in the Silom area, the busiest
shopping district of the city with thousands of shops and bars, as well as the
saucy Patong night-market area. In all, it’s a great location to stay in
Bangkok.

What to Do

Massage at COMO Shambhala

Having checked in,
with a couple of hours before dinner at Nahm, I decided to book myself a 75-minute
deep tissue massage at COMO Shambhala (3,000 Baht or £60), the hotel’s luxury
spa. This was a restorative treatment that got me walking on clouds. The
masseur was very professional, and the setting opulent. Compared to spas in
London, this was good value for the quality of treatment and setting, and made
a great start to the evening.

Where to Eat

Nahm

Listed by San
Pellegrino’s 50 Best Restaurants of the World at number 32, and at number 3 for
Asia, my meal at Nahm was the main purpose of this stopover. I was lucky enough
to try the menu in Nahm’s previous location at The Halkin Hotel in London (reviewed here), so I hoped I was in for a treat.

The restaurant had
subdued lighting, dark stone floors and displays of lush tropical greenery and
orchids. It had a coolly elegant feel about it, and on the night we were there
it was full.

The set menu was a
very reasonable 1,800 baht (around £35 per person) for canapés and 5 main dishes
including salad, soup, relish, curry and a stir-fry, steamed or grilled dish.
These were all presented at the same time, as is customary in Thailand. We also
had a bottle of 2011 Australian Yarra Valley Chardonnay - Little Yering (£35),
which was a good partner for the food we chose.

We kicked off with a
selection of 4 delicious canapés – with fresh and vibrant flavours to stimulate
the taste buds, and contrasting crunchy textures, they were ideal appetisers
that heralded good things to come.

Following the canapés
we had two of the clear soups on the menu – one made of minced pork and prawns
with pak warn and squid, and the other of roast duck with Thai basil and young
coconut. The clear broths of both soups were intensely flavoured but also
refreshing from the myriad herbs and vegetables, like tomato and young coconut.
I enjoyed having the soup as a cooling accompaniment to some of the hotter
dishes.

I love the combination
of crustacea and pork, and the salad of fresh water crayfish with pork and
Asian pennywort was no exception –zingy, sour, sweet and nicely balanced.

The relish was a delicious
dish of minced prawn and pork simmered in coconut cream with young chillies,
red shallots and coriander, fresh vegetables and deep fried cured carp.

The coconut and
turmeric curry was also outstanding – it had blue swimmer crab meat and a refreshing
tang from the calamansi limes cutting through the richness of the coconut-based
sauce.

The stir-fried soft
shell crab was spiked with chilli, salt and coriander, very crisp, and light as
a feather, it was one of the highlights of our meal.

We also had a couple
of desserts – the pistachio pudding and golden tear drops with perfumed mung
beans, and another of pandanus noodles with black sticky rice, water chestnuts,
tapioca and coconut cream.

These were authentic
Thai desserts and very different from what we expect of puddings in the West –
they were packed with a variety of different flavours and textures and rounded
off our meal very nicely.

Drinks at the Met Bar

One of the hippest
bars in town and conveniently located in The Metropolitan Bangkok, The Met Bar
draws in a crowd of locals and expats who know how to party. After the
fantastic meal at Nahm, we headed there for a couple of cocktails and for some
serious people watching. We didn’t hang out long as we had an early flight to
catch to Phuket, but the evening was going strong as we left around midnight.

Thursday, 21 November 2013

A recent crisp Autumn evening found me in Marylebone at L’Atelier des Chefs enveloped in a cloud of cinnamon and allspice. Lurpak, Britain’s favourite butter brand, has just launched a slow churned butter and I had been invited to put it to good use in some Christmas baking.

My baking skills aren’t up to much so it was lucky that Richard Bertinet was on hand with some great recipes, tips and seemingly heatproof fingers. Richard Bertinet is well known for his cookery school in Bath and for his award winning cookery books (find out more here). And, I am sure that those who have attended one of his classes will also know him for his easy, genial manner and his patience.

We started off watching Richard mixing together dough for Spiced Christmas Tea Buns, but it wasn’t long before I was elbow deep in sticky dough. Richard was very handy with simple tips for working the dough, such as keeping your arms loose and working through the torso. And the ‘French Shrug’, the insouciant movement of shoulders and hands practised by our Gallic neighbours (especially Parisian waiters) which is both infuriating and alluring in equal measures. When used by Richard it instantly relieves sticky hands from gooey dough – try it next time, it really does work.

Richard Bertinet is a real authority on baking and we heard how bread making in the West has developed over the centuries, from mediaeval techniques for frasage (the initial mixing of ingredients) to the right method for stretching the dough to ensure enough air has been incorporated.

Stuffed with walnuts, cranberries and a goodly amount of the rich, slow churned butter, the dough was not very pliable at first but with perseverance (not my strongest trait) I got it to approximate Richard’s silky smooth dough. And after a turn in the oven and slathered with lashings of rich butter there wasn’t much to distinguish my paltry effort from that of the master baker.

Lurpak’s slow churned butter is actually very good – the long slow churn in small batches delivers a deep, earthy flavour and a rounded creaminess. We used it to make chocolate and orange crumpets, although, for my money, I would prefer to slather the butter on plain old toasted crumpets any day.

If you have more patience than me (very likely) you might like to try one of Richard’s savoury recipes:

Chorizo & Manchego Breakfast Muffins

Working time: 40 minutes
Resting time: 1 hour
Baking time: 30 minutes

Makes 14 good sized muffins

Ingredients:

100g Manchego cheese

150g cooking chorizo

450g strong bread flour

50g fine polenta or semolina

2 tsps sea salt

1 tbsp honey

20g fresh yeast (or 2tsp dried yeast)

275ml water

75ml full fat milk

Semolina for dusting

Lurpak Slow Churned Butter for serving

Method:

Grate the cheese and dice the chorizo.

Mix the flour, polenta or semolina, honey, sea salt, yeast, water and milk to make the dough. Then add the cheese and chorizo and fold into the dough. Leave to rest for an hour.

Lightly dust your work surface and turn out the dough onto it. Turn the dough over and dust with semolina. Roll out gently to a thickness of about 2cm. Use a 10-12cm cutter to cut out the muffins.

Place a griddle or flat frying pan over a medium heat. Oil the pan and add the muffin circles making sure not to crowd them in the pan – make them in batches. Cook for 4-5 minutes on each side or until golden brown.

About Me

Born in Brazil to Japanese and Italian parents, educated in the UK, a true Londoner. Former investment banker turned Cordon Bleu trained chef, food, wine and travel writer, Japanophile and Supper Club host in Islington.

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